28 June 2008

As much as I would like to poke fun at the hilarious oddities of most of everyone that lives around me (http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/), they're not so bad, although sometimes TPTB come up with irritating legislation. We still cling to antiquated directives and laws.

If there is anything particularly damning these days, its energy policy. The current quest (campaign? crusade?) involves mainly looking for new sources / expanding reserves of oil. Should we drill into Alaska/Gulf/Saudis? Should we build more rigs? Are the bastard* oil companies doing enough to provide oil? Should we open up the strategic reserves? Should OPEC do more? (OPEC should be dismantled; its countries, invaded.)

Even back when a gallon of gas was less than a dollar (late 90s?), oil was still a big concern, of course, not for us. Remember the "you who murdered a hundred thousand iraqis to save a nickel on gas" quote from Air Force One? By then, the pillaging had already continued for nearly fifty years - the British and Americans started pissing off the Middle East around the same time.

Also around the same time, the booming American economy led to the height of impudence - SUV's and pick up trucks. Pick-up trucks were, at times, an essential accessory to many people, and a 100 years after the Model T (21 MPG) was introduced, with its friction-loving design, the most efficient pick-up truck, so called "efficient" ones still get around 20 MPG. The Prius fares a little better, at a little over double the Model T's (and this model is recent phenomenon).

In comparison, we didn't even have mainstream color TV until the mid 1940-1950. It's gone from that, to 1080p with 7.1 surround, the kind of picture you can taste. In retrospect, why are we even using gasoline?

So we continue our dependence on oil (and that's the problem, not a dependence on foreign oil) while building dreadfully shitty vehicles. And people wonder why gas can get to $7 a gallon in 2 years. Because we export these shitty designs! Export to developing countries that strip it down (aka, no airbag) to build a vehicle that's cheap and accessible by their rapidly expanding middle classes.

Had Gates actually said that, they (GM) would have laughed at him and responded similarly, and he would have been ridiculed for years. Until now, that is.

Nice going, asshats. (GM)

Domestic automakers like GM and Ford, with all their money and assets failed to envision developing countries' growing demand of gasoline. As a last ditch effort, the two companies tried to patch things. Ford licensed Toyota's HSD for its Escape hybrid (yay knobby piece of shit design!) and both companies started development of FlexFuel, an idea that tries to solve the "problem" of dependence on foreign oil.

Too bad Ford sucks. Toyota should pull this agreement they have with Ford, and let it sink completely. As for FlexFuel, well, it's not taking off. (Not like hybrid vehicles, anyway). Even the Model T was "flexfuel", how is this idea new? Finally, take a look at the FlexFuel vehicles in the US: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flex_fuel#United_States

See a pattern?** Since you idiots lucked out on innovation this round, just follow the Japanese for a while.

Snopes calls the automotive industry's response to Gates a "stinging rejoinder". Hah. Maybe you should have made that V12 car that cost $50 that got 1000 miles to the gallon. I would not have minded its engine randomly turning off twice a day.

For the record, my WinXP machine has crashed 4-5 times total, my Vista machine is still running great.

24 June 2008

So I figured out how to break into the airport in San Fierro, and now, I only travel in helicopters (provided the mission allows it). Damn straight. My first one (pictured above) got stolen though. Sux.

The problem is, all this gaming has gotten me FATTT. In fact, I haven't done crunches in a while (2-3 weeks) and I can feel the flab accumulating. Tomorrow, the crunches start.

18 June 2008

Firefox 3 is out and everyone on Digg is going crazy. Seriously? Shut the fuck up. Also:

Owned

The new developer beta also does better on the JS tests (http://webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0.9/sunspider.html). Mozilla should ditch Gecko, Microsoft should ditch Trident.

I spent an hour in GTA today trying to land this jet (http://gta.wikia.com/wiki/Shamal) on a highway so I could park it in my garage. Sigh.

Another game I've been hitting up: World in Conflict. Awesome graphics. See for yourself. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDh9a2IPpLk)

I usually build up some serious defenses and then use long range bombers, but this game forces me to follow some douche's orders. Damn it. I'll settle for my (highly effective) strategy in C&C: Tiberum Wars or something. (Also kickass)

16 June 2008

I think, this is normally a one-car garage (or car + 2-wheeler), but I managed to fit in an ambulance and a luxury vehicle. The ambulance actually is more useful than one might think, even if it's slow. Even in the ghetto, they get out of the way when the sirens are on (Code 3!).

That's right. Get out of the damn way. I have a crack delivery to make and the po-po's are on my tail.

12 June 2008

I am back from my vacation and the jetlag has just subsided. Coming back, I began with fullfilling all my craves over the last 3 weeks - a few litres of sprite, Dunkin Doughnuts munchkins, bbq chips. On this latter one, I was too lazy to go to the store so I found a 3 week old package of original (blech!) flavored chips and dipped in bbq sauce. Poor man's bbq chips. Sigh.

But the ultimate crave will start being fulfilled tomorrow when my new gaming platform arrives. I already have a 9800GTX to stick in there, and it's going to come with 3GB of RAM so I needn't worry about anything. I will game like crazy. The only thing that really worries me is that I'm going to increase my carbon footprint with this new desktop. Damn it, I am so spoiled.

I'm actually trying to finish one level of each Mario Galaxy and Medal of Honor everyday on the Wii, while watching ER/Smallville/Greys/Naruto/BSG/Lost/etc.